With the increasing integration of computers and wireless connectability within vehicles, there is increasing concern about the security of vehicular computing systems. Previously, when computers were integrated into vehicles, but no wireless access or connectability existed within the vehicle, it was fairly difficult to infiltrate these computing systems without physically accessing the vehicle. With the inclusion of wireless connections, e.g., BLUETOOTH, WiFi, etc., there is a possibility of outside malicious devices utilizing the wireless connections to attack and access vehicle computing systems.
Mobile applications, designed to interact with the vehicle computers, are developed utilizing modern programming languages. While the applications may be approved to access the vehicle computers, these applications can also be reverse engineered. Since the authentication codes and protocols that grant permission to the application to interact with the vehicle computers (such as, for example, an application ID) are often integrated into the application, reverse engineering of the application can result in a hacker obtaining the application ID. In other instances, the application ID can simply be obtained by monitoring data between a mobile device and the vehicle. Once obtained, the application ID can be coded into a malicious application to trick the vehicle computer into thinking a valid application is attempting to connect to the vehicle computer.